Leadership Collaboration Communication Change Management and Policy Considerations for a Population Health Problem
The dynamicity of modern communities often presents compromises to healthcare efforts to ensure their well-being. Nurses are tasked with identifying these changes and establishing a framework for addressing them. To effect these changes, nurse leaders must demonstrate proficiency in leadership, collaboration, and advocacy abilities and enact change processes in healthcare and at the community level. Contemporary society has seen several population health problems. The opioid crisis is such a population problem that it has devastating consequences. This paper details leadership, collaboration, communication, and policy considerations for the opioid addiction crisis.
Health Problem: The Opioid Addiction Crisis
The opioid addiction crisis in the U.S. highlights one of the most devastating population health issues that has hit the country in the recent past. The opioid addiction issue received recognition from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a public health emergency in 2017. The genesis of the issue dates back to the 1990s when pharmaceutical companies dealing in the manufacture and sale of opioid medications assured the public of its safety and less potential for addiction. This saw an increase in the prescription and subsequent use of these medications to manage pain. This led to widespread misuse of these medications with consequential addiction.
Research findings on the epidemic reveal the harrowing state of this population issue. As of 2019, over 80,000 people have died of opioid overdose and addiction, while 1.6 million Americans developed opioid addiction disorder in the past year. Over 10 million Americans also misuse opioid analgesics. Synthetic opioids such as heroin and methadone were responsible for significant casualties during the epidemic. Over 745,000 people used heroin between 2017 and 2018, with over 14,000 dying from an overdose of the same.
These statistics reinforce the need for coordinated, vigilant, and sustained efforts in dealing with the pandemic. The healthcare system has a role to play. This practicum intends to work with persons with chronic pain who are on routine prescription opioid analgesic use. This group represents the most vulnerable people to vulnerable misuse, addiction, and the devastating consequences of overdose and addiction.
Nurses’ role in patient handling and care provisions places them in a strategic position to address this problem. They must possess the required knowledge of the crisis to execute health promotion efforts for the at-risk groups. Baccalaureate training equips nurses with leadership and advocacy skills that enable them to intervene effectively and bridge care gaps in addressing this epidemic. Baccalaureate-prepared nurses, in this regard, should use evidence-based nursing interventions to ameliorate the harmful effects of opioid misuse in society.
Analysis of a Peer-Reviewed Article on Nursing Role in the Opioid Crisis
The opioid addiction epidemic highlighted the significance of addiction and chronic pain management in the conceptualization of the driving factors for this crisis. Compton & Blacher (2020) challenge nurses’ understanding of the two concepts and posit that neither undergraduate nor graduate-level nursing curricula adequately equip nurses with the competencies to provide effective interventions. The authors of the article provide sufficient supporting evidence to back their claims. Their claims are also reflective of the actual scenario in nursing training. There is paucity and limitation in the content on addiction given to nurses compared to their counterparts in medical and pharmacy schools.
The reliability of data is based on a specific set of criteria. This criterion includes timeliness, relevance, purpose, accuracy, and authority. Data will be said to be unreliable if it misses out on any of the set criteria. The article used was timely as it is a 2020 study, accurate because it is peer-reviewed and draws findings from peer-reviewed papers, and relevant as it interrogates the adequacy of nursing roles in intervening effectively in the opioid crisis.
The current nursing curricula demonstrate some paucity in the addiction and chronic pain management content required to enhance nursing competencies in effective interventions. Campbell (2020) expresses the need to increase content on addiction, chronic pain management, and opioid use. According to Wason et al. (2021), several barriers to curriculum modification exist. There is no clarity on which substance use content to be added or hours to be allocated for this purpose. Additionally, a universal consensus on this addition is yet to be reached, with variations on faculties willing or already implementing these changes.
As nurses assume more active roles in caring for substance abuse disord